Fine, I'll post

It has been brought to my attention that I am being out-blogged by my siblings. Well, I have had a bit on my plate lately. But I intend to up my participation level to that of C quality work for the remainder of this year. And then pledge to do B- level work to start the new year.

As for today's post I will simply put in some pics of events happening around here since we moved into the house 3 weeks ago. Not really any of the house, but you can see some of it in the background.

Christmas came early for me (thanks to Costco and the awesome coupon for kitchen aid mixer!). Ellis and Celie helped me break it in with some rockin' M&M cookies.

Angry cook?

Went to the local toy store with the kids on Saturday. This was taken as we were leaving 1 hour after arriving! There is nothing more challening than taking 4 kids to a toy store at Christmas and ask them to chose gifts for others, while trying to keep your list in your head straight about what they are looking at for themselves! The kids did GREAT! We even made it through Target happy and without any pestering. Things were going so well, I attempted to take the kids out for a special Christmas shopping lunch at Chili's. They were awesome! We had a great day!

Just a note, Brad was at the state wrestling tournament all day. I did this ALONE and I would totally do it again!

This is a giant Playmobil Santa. It may be the only one we can get Celie anywhere near this year.

Still Saturday. Brad picked up a tree on his way home from wrestling. Put lights on it, Brad went back for finals, fixed dinner and let the kids watch White Christmas (my FAVORITE) while they ate. This picture explains why when the bonus room is finished, there will be no TV in the living room. HA!

A Hiking We Will Go

We had a sunny day in the Valley so we decided we needed to go for a good hike in the mountains up in Hatchers Pass. We took the Gold Cord Lake trail. It was a balmy 55 degrees we figure, but that didn't stop the boys from putting their feet in the glacier fed lake! Go figure.

The kids had more fun climbing over all the rocks more than taking in the views. Future mountain climbers I believe.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

The house is going up, up, up and we have rocks to spare. Since we have returned to the land of high speed wireless internet I will be able to update more often our house build. So a quick recap...

Well came in at 100 feet with 40 gallons per minute. Apparently that is great.

Framers are in full swing now. Started standing walls on second floor today. Brad, Isaak, and Ellis went to do some wood clearing and rock moving. Brad suggested that Isaak and Ellis put some of the rocks around the culvert. This is their interpretation of the directions! More like a fort than landscaping.


Isaak and Avery sitting in the windows to the dining room and the front porch.

Two windows to the left are garage, as are the two windows next to it. Next two windows are the office, then the front door, then dining room. The large window on the "bump out" section is to the bonus room over the garage and master (which is right behind the garage). That is it for now. Stay tuned...

Finally warm enough

75 degrees and life is good! The boys have been itching to play in the water and today was the perfect day. Water balloon fights and cups of water have never been so much fun! Even Celie joined in the fun. She didn't get much water to throw, but she hung right in there.

Celie is 2!

Celie's birthday. Two years old! Most evey comment was, "pretty" or "yeah, baby".

This is her camera smile mostly these days. I really hope she outgrows it soon.

Tea and cakes with the brothers....

AAHHH, Watermelon

First watermelon of the season. FYI, I have never really had a "good" watermelon up here. They certainly seem to loose most sweetness by the time they reach our shelves. But the idea of having a watermelon on a sunny day was enough for the kids. Not too many seeds to spit either.

Wrestling Season 2010

Wrestling has come to a close. With the two tournaments of the year right during the time we were moving from the house, Brad and I each took a turn at a tourney. Below are pictures of Avery's first tournament. He pinned his first two matches and lost the third. He still won third place! YEAH!!!

Now that is a tough wrestler!

So today was the State Tourney. We arrived at 8:30 am and we left at 9:30 pm! What a long day. But totally worth it! Isaak won the first three and lost his last two, but still took 4th place for his weight class for the state! There were 16 kids in his bracket and he took 4th! Considering that we were able to make only about half the practices this year because of moving, Isaak did pretty well. I know one thing is for sure, state tourney takes a long time. Also I know that 10 year old boys are VERY smelly after 13 hours of wrestling. We drove home with all the windows down and it was raining. HA! Very proud of my wrestling boys. Ready to sleep in tomorrow.

Easter 2010

Easter pics. Isaak and Avery are getting too cool for pics now. I took alot of pleading to get them into this pic. Celie was just pittiful all morning. She perked up after we gave her a bunny cookie.

At Bobby and Polly's for Zak's birthday. The girls decided to dress up to go play outside. Like their choice of shoes? Very appropriate for spring breakup in Alaska. HA!

Wrestling tourney

Isaak's first tournament of the season. Isaak took second. Very well execuited moves and delivery. Way to go! Isaak is in the red head gear.

STAR WARS!!!!

We took the kids into the Anchorage Museum today as they are featuring a special traveling exhibit. Can you guess? Yes, STAR WARS!!! I thought the boys were going to pass out with excitement when we finallly got there. I have to admit, museums always amazed me as a child and they still do today. It was really cool. Part of the experience was seeing true Star Wars fans seeing the exhibits. One guy dressed up like Yoda, yes he was with his kids that were also dressed as various characters. Well worth our 3 hours!


Here is Avery trying out his self-built cruiser. It runs by magnets. You have to figure out the configuration of magnets to allow it to hover, and cruise. Pretty cool. Lots of interactive exhibits that link science and science fiction.

Here the boys were able to manuver a hovercraft, much like young Aniken (I know it is spelled wrong) in his big race in the desert.

Had to have our pics with the Wookies! Star Wars is not Star Wars without Wookies! The boys all tried speaking Wookie on the way home!

Such a fun Spring Break treat!